Angel of death chapter 1

    It was a dark night in the land of Sysgraphelia, the wolves cried upon seeing the moon. The tall trees looked grim without their usual tint of beautiful peaceful green that only showed itself when the sun shone upon it.
I was told that there were kobolds wreaking havoc in a small village near the mountains, so as a knight I had to deal with them. Ugh, those pathetic beasts should just all die I thought to myself, riding on my loyal mare Anna known as one of the best mares of the kingdom. It went so far that she had been asked to join the royal stables but I wouldn’t allow it. We had been through too much for me to allow it.
I met her as a child and adored since childhood. She was known as one the worst cases when it came to quality, she was abused and did not trust humans whatsoever.
The seller of the mare originally wanted to sell her to a butcher but I objected since I fortunately overheard their conversation. I begged my father to buy her and give her to me as a birthday present. After a lot negotiation I finally managed to convince him to pay more than the butcher originally had offered. He told me that I could keep her on a few conditions; she had to be personally trained by me, which was really hard as she kicked me around each time I got close. I had to attend to her wounds, which she wouldn’t allow and kicked me each time I tried to close in. Even though I would stand up and she would have ran away to the other side of the stable.

    I couldn’t understand, why Anna was unwilling to bond with me. Didn’t she see that I was trying to help her?
What happened to her in the past?
For a moment there was complete silence and I could only wonder what really happened to her. I grabbed a slice of apple out of my pocket that father gave me.
‘Are you hungry Anna?’ I said with a nervously happy voice.
Anna just looked at me with her black eyes, waiting for me to leave her alone.
I started walking towards Anna and as soon as I noticed that she was about to take a step back I backed off as well. I dropped the slice of apple on the ground and backed off. Even though I walked away Anna would still look at me with her pure black eyes. Does she not feel like eating?
I stared at her and it almost became a staring contest. Then all of the sudden Anna decided to eat the apple.
I was overjoyed, Anna finally decided to co-operate with me. I was completely overjoyed even though it wasn’t something huge it still took a few worries away from my heart.  After weeks of trying to even get her attention it finally paid off.
Starting from that icebreaking day we progressed each day. At some point I would spend the night in the stables, just to get Anna used to my smell and my presence.
Each time she got at least a bit closer to me and I would drop a slice of apple just a bit a bit closer to me.
I would sleep on the ground when Anna started getting tired.

One day I woke up and could see Anna right above me. I got startled but still managed to get into a sitting position calmly. Looked at her, she was approximately 1 meter away from me. This had never happened before.
Was she in a good mood? Why is she acting like this all of the sudden?
I had no time to think as she jolted at me pushing me down. Anna bowed down eating the apple that had landed on my chest.
I stood up and slowly showed Anna my hand while meanwhile grabbing another slice of apple.

She ate the apple as I swiftly put my hand between her manes and her neck and stroked her neck. There was complete silence and I could only hear the sound of Anna breathing and the sound of crickets chirping.

The first thing I wanted to do was notify dad that I finally got close to Anna
I ran as fast as I could to tell father what I had achieved, almost falling on the ground on the way to father’s training ground. A soft tender voice called me on my way rushing. It was my mother’s voice.
“Why are you running so fast dear?”
 “I finally managed to tame Anna mom”
“Anna? What a lovely name you’ve given her”
“Thank you” I said with a blushing face.
“Tell your father about Anna Jestah, I bet he will be proud”
“Okay, I’ll tell dad about Anna” I said nodding.

I continued running through the house to notify father and found him on his training grounds. I was completely caught out of breath when I encountered him but before I could say anything we found ourselves being attacked by bandits. The house was lit on fire and I heard a scream, it was my mother’s voice that I heard.
A few bandits climbed through the windows.

“Go help your mother”
“B-..but what if something happens to you?”
“I will be fine Jestah, don’t worry”
“I’ll return soon dad”
I swiftly ran between the bandits that approached to take a look at mom’s situation.

Those Bandits did not choose wisely since father was known one of the strongest warriors in the kingdom. Upon hearing his wife, he was filled with rage, which in return doubled his strength. He told me to check on my mare after I checked on mother’s situation next as there was quite a bit of smoke and the fire could have spread to the stables. I ran as fast as my body could handle even though the smoke gave my eyes a burning sensation I couldn’t stand the thought of those bandits even touching her. The scorching flames danced through the house and stables when I got there. A few Bandits were trying to ride the mare but my mom refused to let them get close.
They got closer but mom didn’t want to give up.
I ran to the Bandits with a small dagger keeping myself hidden behind the hay bales while they had their backs turned to me. My father gave me this dagger to always keep with me in case of danger. Fortunately, he taught how to use a dagger so I knew how to handle the footwork and patterns in which enemies would most likely attack. I snuck up on one of the Bandits using the hay bales to hide behind and move strategically each time one of the Bandits would move. There were 3 Bandits so I had to finish this quickly. I never killed before but I did know where to strike. I waited until the bandit turned his back to me and stabbed him in the back, right through his chest and most likely hit one of his lungs since the bandit was gasping for air after I pierced him. He screamed in pain before dying almost instantly.
The other bandit got startled by the scream and rushed over. They found me almost immediately and stormed at me to avenge their fallen comrade.
The other one turned himself to my mother and without any mercy he killed her.
Hearing the bandit stormed at me, I tried to evade his first attack but I was too slow to evade it. The bandit successfully hit me on my right cheek and I felt like I was leaving earth for a moment.
I lied on the ground thinking of what I should do but not only that what about my mare. The Bandits turned their backs to me and started walking back thinking I passed out. They were mumbling in some weird language I never heard of before. With a lot of struggle I managed to get myself up but could only watch as they tried to kill my mare, as she didn’t want to co-operate with them. “Run away!” I screamed to my mare, “they are trying to kill you” One of the Bandits turned back to me because he saw I wasn’t dead. He walked to me at a slow pace just to torture me psychologically, step by step with a sadistic smile on his face. Just before the bandit tried to stab me I yelled “Anna help me out”. I had not heard of this name before but it just came to me. Anna came running to me immediately. Not until now had I ever noticed how lightning quick she could be. When I tried to pet her, feed or treat her wounds she would run away but not this fast. Anna immediately kicked the thief in in the back that tried to react but was too late. His spine was completely shattered by the fierce kick of Anna’s hooves. Anna walked over to me almost looking like she cared for me, or something similar.
I didn’t have a lot of time to think about this because remembered that father was still fighting. The other bandit was running towards me so I swiftly jumped on Anna’s back and galloped away to see my dad who was still fighting. The temperature in the house and stable had in the meantime only risen due to the scorching flames. Anna didn’t seem to care about the fire and ran at my will.
We finally arrived at the room my dad was fighting in. There was thick dark blood all over the floor. Dad was kneeling down on the ground. It looked like he had killed all of his opponents but still insisted on doing a quick prayer for them. That is just the kind of man my father is I thought by myself.
“Dad” I said to him relieved that he was safe.
I didn’t feel sick of the thought that there were at least 5 dead bodies in the room. I ran over to my father and gave him a tight hug. I felt like crying after what just happened.
“It’ll be alright Jestah” Father said to me in a whispering tone. He was covered in blood. I wasn’t sure if it was his or mine but I couldn’t care less.
“Don’t leave me dad, please” I said in a snickering tone.

Meanwhile the other bandit I successfully managed to avoid had, caught up to us. He was mumbling in some weird language that I had never heard of.
The bandit came running after he saw us. Father was too weak to even stand up.
He tried to stand up but his open wounds wouldn’t allow it. Shaking, in nothing but normal clothes and his loyal sword that was rumoured to be enhanced by demons themselves. The bandit launched an attack and I could only watch as my father tried to reflect those attacks. Father lost his sword after barely reflecting the first attack.
With no weapon in his hand he stood no chance.
The bandit launched an attack and I tried to protect father but just before I was able to reflect the bandit’s attack I was pushed away by dad and got hit by the bandit’s sword.
“Why did you do that you idiot?” I said with a saddened frustrated voice.
“Go to a friend of mine that lives in the main city Jestah, he will take care of you”
He looked at me with a grinning face and faded away from this world.
 The bandit killed the last bit of family I had left. “Why does this happen to me” I mumbled. I grabbed my dagger that was in my pocket. “There is no place for your kind on this earth you low scum,” I mumbled. He seemed to know my father was since he had a big grin on his smile. The grin on his face completely pissed me off. “Don’t think you’ll get away with this”
I charged at the bandit hiding my dagger under my sleeve. His smile disappeared and tried attacking me by swinging his sword at me. I evaded his attack and cut his throat.
I saw him gasping for air that would never reach due to blood gushing out. I saw him lying on the ground trying to survive but I wouldn’t allow him.
“Let’s see how much pain a human can take if you’re even partially human that is”
I walked in slow steps to let him know I wanted to torture him in the last seconds he had on this world. The bandit tried to crawl away expressing a great deal of fear.
His eyes widened almost passing out from pain. He started mumbling what I thought were curse words. I walked to dad’s corpse and grabbed his sword.
“Do you know what happens to people who steal things that do not belong to them?”
I walked back and cut off the thief’s left hand. He screamed in pain and seemed to start begging me to kill him.
“Do you know what happens to people that kill?”
I stabbed him multiple times in the stomach saying, “Your kind doesn’t deserve to live”.
After stabbing him enough times he eventually died. Father’s sword was covered in blood that partially dried up due to the heat in the stable.
I immediately ran off to see how father was doing.
“Dad, I killed the bandit” I said with a voice tempering down into whisper”
“Dad, why won’t you wake up dad?”
I shook him around frantically but got no response.
“Aren’t you supposed to be one of the strongest warriors in the whole kingdom?”
 
“I will kill you all” I yelled while tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Where will I go?”
Who will feed Anna?”
I was lost in this abyss where I couldn’t hear anyone.
I couldn’t feel anything except for my blood pumping out of my heart, it became more painful and the more it pumped out, the more hatred and thirst for revenge I started to feel. But was this all that there was to it? Where did my sense for justice go? What happened to the Jestah that wouldn’t hurt a fly?
Meanwhile Anna had trotted all the over me. I turned around to Anna.
“Anna, what am I supposed to do?”  I knew that Anna couldn’t react, she still was an animal after all.
“We have no choice but to leave Anna”
“Forgive me mom and dad, I couldn’t even have a proper farewell”
After burying giving them a honourable burial I started my journey to the main city on Anna’s back. Like this my journey at becoming a knight started.
 
Thinking about this made me nostalgic, after all we have been together for 7 years now.
It was completely silent except for Anna’s hooves tapping against the road when suddenly I Kobolds appear.  “An ambush, when did they get so intelligent?” I ordered Anna to stop and got into a stance to fight the kobolds.
“Since when are these creatures smart enough to ambush their opponents?”
The kobolds completely surrounded me but I was the lucky one since I had a much higher skill level then they did.  It didn’t last long before I knocked out most of those kobolds fairly easily and there were only a few of these pests left when all of the sudden I fell on the ground after not reflecting an attack properly. I lost my sword that my father once proudly used and was about seal my fate away with his weapon but at this very moment some creature threw a round object at the kobold. The kobold caught the object squishing it between his hands but it also left behind a smell.
“Vanille?” I mumbled.
The creature came in at a speed that no human possibly follow and before Jestah knew it all the kobolds were knocked out.
“It’s chocolate you dummy”
 I looked at the creature and noticed she was some kind of bunny girl.
“You owe me one free chocolate cupcake mr. cupcake thief,” she said.
“Wh-who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter who I am, just get me another cupcake”
“O-or at least some cake” she said looking at the ground blushing a bit.
“I didn’t bring cake with me”
“Not even some chocolate?” she said with a saddened startled face.
I shook my head.
She walked away with a grumbling stomach, which made me feel bad.
Especially after she went through the trouble of helping me.

“Wait, listen I’ll get you your sweets”
“Really?” she said with a happy voice.
“Yes, just keep it down will you.”
“Thank you stranger” her eyes lighted up when she finally realized what I just said.

Jestah and this mysterious creature decided to walk to the nearest town to buy what he just promised her.

“So where are you from?” I asked
“I don’t know” she said with a big childish grin on her face.
“Then how did you get here?”
“I have no idea to be honest”
“Then what do you know?”
She suddenly stopped walking.
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”
“I dreamt about an elegant being descending down onto me”
“What did she look like?”
“Almost like an angel, she had blue hair and a beautiful set of pure white wings that swiftly waved through the air”
“Did she say anything?”
“Oh, I thought I was telling the story you mr. cupcake thief”
“Fine”
“The angel said that I needed to find the chosen one to fight the angel of darkness and her armies”
“and when I woke up on a tree my cupcake fell down to where you were fighting”
I looked at her, she didn’t seem like the person that would lie so I believed what she said.
“Can I ask you for your name?”
“My name is Kirinnee, what is your name?” she replied.
“Mine is Jestah, it’s nice to meet you Kirinnee”




Jestah and Kirinnee arrived at the dawn of the morning. The sun emerged from behind the mountains and gave the town that was filled with nothing but shadows light. The shadows got driven out slowly but surely.
Kirinnee and Jestah walked over a cobble stone path with wooden houses on the sides.
The town looked more cozy now that it wasn’t covered in shadows anymore.

“What a pretty town” Kirinnee said ready to race off to the first place that sold cupcakes.
The sun rose up at its highest point covering the whole city.
Not till now did I realize that Kirinnee didn’t have her usual bunny-like traits that she had in battle. “Where did your ears go?” Jestah said inspecting Kirinnee.
“Well actually that beca-“ Before Kirinne could finish her sentence she smelled the smell of cake and immediately hopped off to get what she wanted.
Jestah tried to stop her from foolishly running away but was too late, Kirinnee already hopped off. Jestah ran after Kirinnee only to find her looking with big sparkling eyes.
‘I want that, and that one. Oh and give me three of those’ Kirinnee said.
“Don’t eat too much” a tender voice said approaching. “O-oh it’s a customer” she said while holding her hat in front of her face. “I-ehm, I’m sorry, my name is Sarah” she said with a soft voice. “There you are Kirinnee, why did you randomly run off you dummy” “I was worried something may have happened to  you” “You told me I could have more cupcakes since you stole mine” Kirinnee said with a sulking tone.
“Don’t run off like that when you’re supposed to stay with me”
“You don’t have to scold me every single time” Kirinnee said looking away.
Sarah started to laugh. “Would you care to join me for dinner tonight?”
“That would be great” Jestah answered. “Thanks for the offer bu-“ Right at this moment Kirinnee interrupted Jestah by standing on his feet. “What my dumb cupcake stealing companion here is trying to say is that we would love to stay and eat”.

Kirinnee and Jestah spent the evening in a small house where Sarah lived.
There wasn’t much decoration but it still made you feel like you were safe and looked like a cosy house.
Jestah, Kirinnee and Sarah talked about their adventures and their daily lives till it was dark outside.
Time went by rather quick and each went to their own bed and slept for the night.
A few hours had passed when the first rays of sunshine covered Jestah’s room.
There was a great amount of noise which woke Jestah up.
“hmm… give me just a few more minutes Kirinnee. “Kirinnee?” Jestah started to get worried.
Jestah stood up immediately and ran off to her room screaming her name in his mind.
‘What has this mysterious creature done to me?’ ‘Why am I screaming her name making my mind go completely blank?’. I didn’t know the answer to that question and I couldn’t care less. When Jestah entered the room it was completely what he had feared al this time.
After all her species were rare and there were bound to be greedy humans ready to sell her off for gold. After cooling down Jestah found a note on top of Kirinnee’s pillow. ‘If you don’t give us the sword or we will ‘ask’ your cute bunny sidekick where it is.
Reading this filled me with rage. I couldn’t believe it, I had finally met a person that made laugh and she was taken away like that. “I need to go after her” I mumbled into myself.
                                                                         I must save her.       end of chapter one